I was asked to create this fundraiser by my 23 year old daughter, Tatum, who attempted to end her life on Friday, April 19th, 2024.

She has been diagnosed with severe complex PTSD following several subsequential traumas:

Her father suffered a severe TBI her junior year of high school and is full time care requiring intermittent use of a ventilator. (oxygen, wheelchair, full time protective supervision)

She was emotionally harmed by a teacher, who was terminated her senior year.

Her youngest sister was injured in a school bus roll over crash and also has a TBI.

Despite all of this, she still graduated as valedictorian and was accepted into the University of Oklahoma.

Tatum's dad, sisters and I (mom) moved to California to get her father specialized care at UCLA in October of 2023. Tatum did not want to move with us because she was in school and had a network of friends in Oklahoma.

Tatum was trying to create an independent life for herself. She was attending the University of Oklahoma and had been accepted into honors college.

However, she could not balance her emotional well being with work and school, so she is taking the semester spring off.

She then had covid/flu and missed a week of work. Then she had strep throat and missed more work - falling behind on her monthly bills. We sent her money to help, but it wasn't enough.

The stress was too much for Tatum.

And on Friday, after a stressful day, she went home and took pills in an attempt to end her life.

Her friends got her to the ER where she was treated for an overdose and then placed on an EOD at Oaksprings Mental Health facility in Oklahoma City.

Tatum is a server who relies on tips and she is underinsured and now has the added stress of paying for her hospital stay ($3100+ plus her rent/utilities).

We (her parents) are covering as much as we can. Her father requires a lot of medical care and he has multiple specialists and treatments at UCLA. And some of his physicians are cash pay only (which seems to be a thing here in California). He has an pending inpatient stay in the epilepsy unit in 3 weeks, a PET scan with EEG on the 24th and will be receiving specialized care in both the critical medicine department and neuropsychologist/memory care departments.

(**And I only am mentioning his care to explain why we are not able to cover all of Tatum's expenses at this time. His care is a big expense. I just don't want anyone to think we aren't helping Tatum. Because have been and are doing as much as we can. We do regularly send her financial support, including paying for her car, car insurance and cell phone bill)

I have increased this fundraiser goal to $5,000.

That should cover a good portion over what’s past due and get her current for April and May.

Update:

Tatum’s bank account is overdrawn and must be brought current. Her utilities are all past due.

$3100 for the minimum hospital copay

$1045 for April's rent

$1045 May’s rent

$800 for electric, gas and water (I think she is a month behind in each)

And an unknown amount to bring her bank account current.

plus funds to continue her psychiatric care.

If you would like to contribute and would prefer to pay directly to a specific need, let me know. I can provide information for the hospital and for her landlord.

I do not have her specific utility account numbers but I can probably get them.

I have only spoken to Tatum 3 times since she was placed inpatient.

But she seems to be improving and she says her biggest worry is how she will pay for these bills while she is hospitalized and getting treatment.

Thank you for keeping my beautiful daughter in your prayers.

**this fundraiser is created by her request. And she has given permission for the details to be released.